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500 Customs Gold Units
| Issuer | Central Bank of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1930 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Customs Gold Unit (1930-1948) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Intaglio-printed portrait of Sun Yat-sen in an oval vignette at centre, set against a blue guilloche underprint with a large red ornamental rosette below bearing the denomination characters. The bank name 中央銀行 (Central Bank of China) and place name 上海 (Shanghai) appear in large Chinese characters above the portrait, flanked by corner denomination numerals 伍佰. Two red seal impressions appear at the lower centre, with the date and printer's imprint along the bottom margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 行銀央中 海上 付即票憑 關 金 佰 伍 圓 印年九十國民華中 司公票鈔國美 (Translation: Central Bank of China Shanghai Pay on Demand Five Hundred Customs Gold Units Printed in the 19th year of the Republic of China American Bank Note Company) |
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| Comments |
The Customs Gold Unit was a notional accounting currency introduced by the Nationalist government in 1930 specifically to denominate tariff revenues, insulating customs receipts from the chronic depreciation of the silver tael and dollar. It was pegged to the U.S. dollar at 40 cents, though in practice the rate fluctuated. Issuing paper notes in CGU denominations was partly a fiscal tool — it gave the government a way to mobilize tariff-backed obligations as negotiable instruments.
American Bank Note Company held a long-standing relationship with Republican China's monetary institutions, and this 500-unit denomination sits at the high end of the CGU series. Notes of this value would have moved primarily through commercial and governmental channels rather than retail trade.